King Willem-Alexander does not always know how to keep a straight face. He is visibly irritated when RTL Boulevard asks him a teasing question. “What’s that like, such a blue envelope?”
The King of our country, Willem-Alexander, paid a working visit to the tax officials in Apeldoorn yesterday morning. Everywhere he goes or stands, a small army of royalty press appears. It almost never makes for nice television, because the royals don’t know how fast to run into their AA car. Yesterday was the exception.
Blue envelope
Annemarie de Kunder was waiting for him afterwards and asked a very witty question to our head of state. “Your Majesty, what was it like for you to see a blue envelope for once?”
Willem-Alexander then makes himself known very much. “I see that every year, thank you,” he says with an extremely irritated face (see below).
Slightly irritated
Presenter Luuk Ikink thinks it’s hilarious. “Yes, Jeroen, he didn’t think that was a very nice question, did he?”
Royalty expert Jeroen Snel says: “No, slightly irritated, but yes… It is the truth. He gets them less than you and I, Luuk. I’m already receiving an announcement: ‘You have to declare income tax. Pay!’ And then it will be completed.”
‘He’s bummed’
Does Willem-Alexander pay no taxes at all? “He doesn’t pay income tax, but he does pay on his property, on the houses he owns and on his assets, so he does pay tax and I think he is also disappointed about that, yes.”
By the way, Boulevard was not allowed to film everything at the Tax Authorities during the working visit. “The king visited the so-called print street and there you can film addresses and names. That was of course not allowed, so strict conditions were set for the media, that things had to be filmed not head-on, but rather from the side.”
Fragment
The Boulevard fragment in question: